On the one hand, Moreau is one of the longest serving Oilers, and a leader in off-ice charitable work, as seen above. It's impossible to question either his passion for the game or his desire to win, and he is the kind of guy who plays through pain and often doesn't get enough credit for it. Last season, for example, Moreau played with a broken hand from December until the end of the season. Here's what I had to say about it at the time:

So, while I tend to agree with Shepso at Bringing Back the Glory that it's incredibly frustrating to watch an injured player put into tough situations night in and night out while useful parts in Dustin Penner, Marc Pouliot, Kyle Brodziak and Robert Nilsson are relegated to lesser roles or the sidelines, there's a positive upside to all this - namely, that Ethan Moreau's performance could plausibly improve by a significant margin next season.

And if that improvement can turn the captain into a physical player who holds his own at even strength against tough opposition, he could be a very useful part of this team going forward. If the amount of attention his reckless penalties have gotten this season motivates him to change his ways (and to my eye he did improve in this area down the stretch), he may even be a player that I applaud next season.

Of course, the healing of that broken hand hasn't fixed the problems. Moreau's play still isn't where it was a few years back, to the point where some have wondered if he's fully recovered from the eye injury he suffered last season. He's still taking poor penalties - last year he took 1.9 penalties and drew 1.0 penalties per 60 minutes of icetime (-0.9) but this year has been even worse because he hasn't been drawing penalties. So far on the season, Moreau averages 1.5 penalties taken and 0.1 penalties drawn (-1.4) for every 60 minutes he plays. He's the only forward on the team (min: 10GP) to have a penalty differential worse than -0.4.

Still, his poor play is only one of the arguments to remove his captaincy. Derek Zona recently highlighted the other reason frequently bandied about - his willingness to criticize everyone other than himself. Most of the readers here will recall the game against Vancouver on Boxing Day; the Oilers were playing a relatively good road game (even carrying the play to some degree) until two power play goals by the Canucks turned the game around. I blamed Moreau; it was his pointless goalie interference call that put the Oilers' down a man and led to the 5-on-3. Moreau himself saw things a little differently:

"It's our inability to kill a penalty and our inability to score a goal on the power play when we have the chances that cost us... We have to do a much better job killing penalties and our power play has to be better. We contribute our loss to special teams and that's about it. That's why guys get paid a lot of money, is to kill penalties, that's their job. We're not executing well enough. We have some of our best players, veteran players on the penalty kill and the power play and we're not executing like we should. It's unfortunate because we're wasting some really good efforts."

The Oilers power play went 0-for-3 on the night, so it wasn't like they got a ton of chances to score the winning goal; I really don't know if I'd put the loss on that group.

As for Moreau's comments about the penalty kill, I'm not sure how to take them. The first power play goal against, Moreau was sitting in the box, and Horcoff was the lone forward out there in the 5-on-3. The second goal however can be somewhat directly attributed to Moreau - the pass to the point went right through him, Edler took it and fired, and Kesler deflected it into the net. So at first glance perhaps he is taking his share of the blame.

On the other hand, obscuring the issue is the comment about guys making money. In order, here are the cap hits for the four players on the ice for the Kesler goal:

Sheldon Souray: $5.4 million

Tom Gilbert: $4.0 million

Patrick O'Sullivan: $2.925 million

Ethan Moreau: $2.0 million

In other words, the way I take that comment is 'this team has overpaid guys who aren't getting the job done.'

Zona looks at it as Moreau deflecting the blame from himself. That's how I take it too, and it isn't the first time Moreau's done it either (Last year, the power play and penalty kill both went 1-for-4, with Moreau on the ice for Anaheim's power play game-winner, and after the game he laid all the blame on the power play. I was fairly angry about that; 25% is a good power play rate, and 75% is a bad penalty-killing rate, but Moreau never mentioned the PK).

I've said many times that I don't see what happens in the locker room, so it's entirely possible that Moreau's a great teammate behind closed doors. But comments like the one he made above really bother me. I'd think a good captain would step up to the plate and deflect blame from his teammates to himself, saying something along the lines of, 'it was a bad penalty to take and it's something I have to work on.' It seems to me that comments like that would unite, whereas deflecting blame divides.

I can't be sure one way or the other, but based on his on-ice play and public comments, it's difficult to picture Moreau as an especially good captain.

Jonathan Willis is a freelance writer.
He currently works for Oilers Nation, Sportsnet, the Edmonton Journal and Bleacher Report.
He's co-written three books and worked for myriad websites, including Grantland, ESPN, The Score, and Hockey Prospectus. He was previously the founder and managing editor of Copper & Blue.

It's unfortunate for the Oilers that the team literally had no one else to hang the C on after Gator left. Moreau is washed up. He never was and never will be a difference maker. What's the point of having a Captain that cant make a diference on the ice? Bad move.

It's unfortunate for the Oilers that the team literally had no one else to hang the C on after Gator left. Moreau is washed up. He never was and never will be a difference maker. What's the point of having a Captain that cant make a diference on the ice? Bad move.

whats the point of building a leadership core that has almost zero experience in actually winning ANYTHING?

souray? horcoff? moreau? hemsky? vis? staios?

honestly, all this talk of moreau not being a good leader etc etc etc etc etc doesnt mean SFA. Is this team any different with souray as captain? the team is still sh*t, a different guy leading the sh*t doesnt change the fact it is still sh*t.

having guys who have hung around long enough to be considered vets on a sh*t team doesnt = leadership

i should, however, give moreau props for his community work. the guy is awesome around town, and that aspect of being captain he is one of the best at.

I have to say that the trade between the Capitals and Blue Jackets gave some cause for hope that the Oilers might be able to move some of their veteran contracts. While it may be a stretch to move both Moreau's $2M contract and Staios' $2.7M in the same deal, which are at least vaguely similar to Clark's and Jurcina's, it indicates that there may be teams out there willing to take on their contracts. Clark and Moreau in particular have a lot of similarities in their skill-sets and roles, and thecaptainethanmoreau is a bit cheaper, too. I'm not sure that taking Chimera back for him would be helpful, as there's not a lot of difference in salary between them and an extra year on Chimera's deal, too, but it shows that there's at least one team willing to trade for veteran presence.

It looks like this was at least partially motivated to open up some short term cap space for Washington as it frees up $2.13M. I'm not sure what Columbus gains from it, other than shaking up a roster that is clearly struggling. I'm looking forward to reading JW's take on the trade.

It is time to make changes. They are too fragile, something goes wrong and they stop skating and you can see the pain. JDD is not quit ready to do all thenwork and it shows. Decent goaltending but not great. Why are some goalies on their knees before the shot is made? Trades are needed if for nothing more then to change the dressing room. Player I could see going. Grabs, Moreau POS and either Cogs or Chorney, I prefer Cogs.

In the past couple of years the team has changed owners, coaches and a lot of players. Changing the Captain does nothing until you change the guy driving the bus. One Kevin Lowe. He's the joke of the NHL and neither he or nor the owner seem to get it.

I keep reminding myself that one player does not make a team better. Jovo and Jokinen did not make Phoenix a playoff team and Khabibulin did not make Chicago a playoff team, etc., etc., etc. (although I was fooled at the time). A few veterans mixed in with too many young and/or incapable players does not make a playoff team.

That said, with over 2 years off and a little bit of aging, Moreau has lost a lot of his mojo. There was a time when Moreau was an impact player - about 4-5 years ago, and it was noticeable in the win-loss column if he was injured.

At the time he was named captain, there was not a lot to choose from - he, Horcoff and Hemsky were probably the front runners. A more risky move (although a higher payoff if it worked IMHO) would have been to make the team Hemsky's. He was young at the time, but so were other notable captains.

In the past couple of years the team has changed owners, coaches and a lot of players. Changing the Captain does nothing until you change the guy driving the bus. One Kevin Lowe. He's the joke of the NHL and neither he or nor the owner seem to get it.

Does the Canadian Olympic committee not seem to "get it" as well? Good thing Clarkenstein gets it, while those proffesional hocky minds don't.

Lowe handed the keys to an 89 point, 9th place team that almost everyone considerd a young and up and coming roster to Tambillini.